and scattered them. Aranda and Yagüe swiftly advanced and the victory was complete. The Nationalists took thousands of prisoners and thousands of tons of supplies and munitions. The Republicans ran for their lives if they could. The final battle began on 18 February. Aranda and Yagüe cut off the town from the north and then surrounded it, as the Republicans had accomplished in December. On 20 February, Teruel was cut off from the former Republican capital in Valencia, and with the Nationalists entering the town, Hernández Saravia gave the order for withdrawal. Most of the army escaped before the route was cut off, but about 14,500 men were trapped. The colourful communist Republican commander El Campesino was surrounded but eventually broke out to escape. He always claimed that Lister and other communist commanders had left him to his fate in the hope that he would be killed or captured. The Nationalists finally recaptured Teruel on 22 February. The Nationalists found 10,000 Republican corpses in Teruel after the battle was over. Aftermath The Battle of Teruel exhausted the resources of the Republican Army. The Spanish Republican Air Force could not replace the airplanes and arms that it had lost at the Battle of Teruel. On the other hand, the Nationalists concentrated the bulk of their forces in the east and prepared to drive through Aragon into Catalonia and the Levante. Franco had the edge on resupply, as the Nationalists now controlled the efficiently-run industrial might in the Basque Country. The Republican government, however, had to leave the armament industry in Catalonia in the hands of the anarchists. One anarchist observer reported, "Notwithstanding lavish expenditures of money on this need, our industrial organization was not able to finish a single kind of rifle or machine gun or cannon...." Franco's retaking of Teruel was a bitter blow to the Republic after the high hopes that had been engendered by the city's capture. It also removed the last obstacle to Franco's breakthrough to the Mediterranean Sea. Franco wasted little time and began the Aragon Offensive on March 7, 1938. The Republic had withdrawn its best troops to replenish them after the loss of Teruel on February 22, and the Republicans, still reeling from the heavy losses at Teruel, offered little resistance. The Nationalists rolled through Aragon, entered Catalonia and Valencia Province and reached the sea. By April 19, 1938, they controlled 60 km of